MIAMI-DADE, Florida: On this day, 30 years ago, [at the time] one of the worst shootouts in US History occurred when 7 Special Agents with the FBI field office for Miami engaged two bank robbers named William Matix and Michael Platt.
At the time of their deaths Platt and Matix had a landscaping and tree removal and servicing business called The Yankee Clipper, and had met served together in the US Army at Fort Campbell, KY. Both were veterans of the War in Vietnam and had long, distinguished military careers.
And prior to their exploits in bank robbery and murder in the first degree had zero criminal records between them, not even so much as a parking ticket or moving violation.
In fact, and by all accounts from family and friends, they were model citizens. And that prior to their deaths on this day 30 years ago no one in their immediate circles knew of their desire to rob banks or kill and hurt people badly in the process. And that’s really what’s funny about Bill Matix and Mike Platt. Their stories. Successful in legitimate business and personal life, BUT prone to evil and personal destruction publicly. Where, I wonder, did their mothers and fathers go wrong? Or did they?
We know that both men saw combat in the jungles of Southeast Asia (Peoples Republic of Vietnam) as well as combat in Grenada, and other classified places, as both men were in the US Special Forces, and so it is believed that both men may have suffered from but were never formally diagnosed with something called: Post traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.
And perhaps such a disease, such a mindset, reared its ugly head on many occasions and personal incidents in both these men’s lives when their first wives were suddenly and violently killed. And these women’s subsequent deaths ruled as either suicide or death by unforeseen circumstance?
Perhaps this was the catalyst that would send these men over the edge, drive them towards committing such unspeakable and horrific acts of violence as bank robbery and death from about 1984 to that fateful day on April the 11th 1986 when their lives would suddenly and abruptly come to an end, their rage, their propensity towards violence be at an end at the hands of those 8 federal agents. With two of these,Jerry Dove and Ben Grogan, Special Agents for the FBI losing their lives as well on this day.
But outside of this what do we know, what have we learned as a nation? Clearly, not much.
One could go all the way back to April 5 1970 when in the unincorporated community of Newhall, CA. – just outside Santa Clarita and Los Angeles, CA. – Bobby Davis and Jack Twining engaged California Highway Patrol Officers in one of the deadliest shootouts in American history at the time. Starting out as a simple, routine traffic stop, BUT escalating into what would be one of the worst days in the history of that law enforcement agency’s stoic history.
Moving forward through time one can make hay or raise cause for alarm and concern for the Wounded Knee incident of 1973 in which members of the American Indian Movement or AIM engaged federal authorities for several months at the Oglala Sioux Indiana reservation over civil and human rights abuses and treatment.
If you run the risk of calling attention to the 1997 North Hollywood [Ca.] shootout you’re called an attention getter. BUT to what end?
The Bundy Ranch standoff of 2014 or the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge standoff of today. Each time, each incident we have had a clashing of the public and private sectors. And each time a life or several lives have been taken.
Enough! Enough already. Put the guns down. No life is worth the expending of a bullet. Let me repeat this for the sake of clarity. No life is worth the expending of a bullet.
Recognition and treatment, in both fairness and mental/physical health. Think for a minute. Had folks like Platt and Matix been recognized and treated with kindness, fairness, decency and respect I am doubly sure good men like Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove would still be alive today. Having lived long, full lives and having had long, full and distinguished careers with the FBI.
Yet though they are, people are pushed and pushed and pushed. Painted into a corner by a system that neither cares nor is desirous to treat people, human beings, never mind American citizens, BUT human beings with fairness, dignity and respect. Instead just takes, and takes, and takes and takes some more. Until there is nothing left. No direction for a Platt and Matix to turn but to the advent of the gun, firearms. And the life of crime, murder and mayhem that comes with it, most of the time.
When will we treat people as we wish to be treated? Freely. Fairly. Openly. Honestly. These are, if you drill down on it – willingly – all that human beings, of any stripe, wish to be handled in. Not this! Not the above and titled. We are better than this.
These are the things that we need to push for. Fairness. Justice. Honesty. Trust. Compassion. Equality. The world is and will be a better place. What are we fighting for?
–Rhett.
Say What News?! 